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What is nicer than a text on Mother’s Day from your kids? A card.

May 06, 2015

By Caroline NealonExecutive Director, Paper Group & Statistics

What is nicer than a text on Mother’s Day from your kids? A card.

One made out of paper. In a paper envelope. With a paper stamp.
I love to get mail, especially with the promise of a handwritten note. My kids know I want a card on Mother’s Day that I can hold in my hands. When they were smaller, I told them that if they didn’t write thank you notes, they wouldn’t get gifts anymore: unenforced of course, but the message stuck nonetheless.

Mom likes the real thing. Paper means more. The sweetest things my kids have ever said to me are in the cards they write to me. We are not an emotional bunch, but a handwritten note lends itself to the expressions of gratitude, love and appreciation that we feel for each other but don’t say every day – in a way that electronic communications cannot convey.

Emails and texts are convenient - we are not troglodytes. We love our tablets and phones and laptops. But when it matters, we use paper.

A text cannot replace my daughters’ handwriting or my son’s chicken-scratch confirming our bond. My six-year old grandson loves to pick out cards with me and for me – he is currently partial to cats doing funny things. He knows intuitively that a card itself is a gift. He knows I treasure the notes, and has seen some of the cards that his dad made for me ‘in the old days’. The beauty of paper cards is that they can be passed around easily, and admired repeatedly and shared.

A handwritten note is a tangible reminder of the sender - it is personal and reflects the relationship you share. A paper card is far superior to a text or a tweet, and it shows a commitment that the electronic greetings that we get bombarded with each day just can’t match.

So, send a card or a handwritten note to the women in your life that have served mom duty. No texting please.